After austerity we must build for the future

If we loosen the purse strings infrastructure has to be the priority, not pay caps and student fees

The best place to build London’s new runway is not Heathrow Airport. It’s not Gatwick or Stansted, or a man-made island in the Thames Estuary. No: the best place for London’s new runway is Birmingham.

Granted, Birmingham International Airport, nestled in fields southeast of Britain’s second city, is more than 100 miles from the capital. But by the time HS2 is built it will take less than 40 minutes to get there from central London, and only a wee bit longer from Heathrow itself.

For those of us yet to be convinced about the wisdom of HS2, here at last is the justification for splurging billions on a new high-speed railway: London-Birmingham Airport. No more worries about room for expansion: Birmingham has oodles of that.…